1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a recorded sheet handling apparatus suitably used together with a recording apparatus such as a copying machine.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
In recent years, conventional recording apparatuses such as printers and facsimile systems in addition to copying machines have been used in various fields. In these recording apparatuses, multi-functional, high-speed features are required for the copying machines.
When conference data and distribution data are to be prepared in the form of a recorded document by a recording apparatus such as a copying machine, the recorded sheets must be aligned, folded, punched, or stapled. Many attempts have been made to automate these operations so as to improve total copying efficiency. For this purpose, a sorter for sorting the copied sheets, an automatic punching apparatus, an automatic folding machine, an automatic gathering machine, and a handling apparatus as a combination of these apparatuses and machines have been proposed, as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 61-94180 and 61-84662 and a publication from the Institute of Electrophotography of Japan, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1985, PP. 188-194.
The recorded sheets are often stapled or filed for later use. However, a handling apparatus for punching and stapling the recorded sheets has never been proposed.
The present inventors proposed a recorded sheet handling apparatus in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/146,569 filed on Jan. 21, 1988. This apparatus comprises an intermediate holding unit for sequentially stacking a set of recorded sheets which are externally supplied one by one, a handling unit for selectively punching or stapling at a holding position the set of recorded sheets held in the intermediate holding unit, a storage unit for storing handled recorded sheets, a first convey means for conveying the non-handled recorded sheets to the intermediate holding unit, and a second convey means for conveying the handled sheets to the storage unit. When this handling apparatus is used together with a recording apparatus such as an electrophotographic copying machine, a set of recorded sheets can be automatically punched and stapled to conveniently prepare conferential and distributional references.
When three holes are punched in a sheet having a size of 8.5" .times. 11" used in U.S.A. (this sheet will be referred to as an F4 size hereinafter) and the punched sheets are stapled, the punching positions undesirably come close to the stapling positions. Therefore, it is difficult to optimally determine the positions of staplers and a punching machine.